Credit: Due unto Others

Cicero once noted, "nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another."

'Can never be kept up' indeed. We have seen that first hand. Borrowing money is like swimming with a brick in each hand as Heilein once put it.* But it isn't always the borrowers fault, for there is often no other method of purchasing what is needed but by credit - most of modern Western society works by credit. No credit: no house, no credit: no car, no credit: no credit. If one has no credit, how can he procure it? Well, someone must begin the process by extending trust. At least, that is how it used to be. That isn't the case now, corporations are too big, lender too huge to know you. Its not trust the lenders extend, but some ethereal thing based neither on trust nor dead presidents nor even the gold standard, but offers of a better life. Its a dream, a lie, and that is all it is, but it is yours if you sign your name on this line to someone you will never meet (and may never talk to on the phone either).

As we all now know, and many knew before, if the lenders aren't out to simply offer goodwill then it is debt and death they deal. Without a care for the borrower, only their money, a society cannot perpetuate the faith or credit that Cicero spoke of, merely greed and backstabbing. One generation in and all is lost, for greed eats itself. Watch the news for two minutes and we see the effects of that. And what's worse, in 2009, it seems only the borrower must make good on his end, but the lender is free of such restraints.

We have been warned by many a sage throughout history that lending on credit is a bad road to travel if one wants to get rich (or even remain stable). The old saying, 'those who sell on credit have much business but no cash' hits home (if we still have one). And it is this that has caused our society to crumble to it's present state. Was it the policy of some malicious and dastardly villain, the naive politician full of goodwill 25 or 30 years ago or an ignorant public? My vote goes toward the greed of everyone, we cannot blame one or even a group. We must blame ourselves. We all (well, most of us) want the American dream, not just Americans. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get rich when our neighbors keep buying things we cannot afford.

So, how now to out this rut in which we find ourselves? Well, first we could stand to take seriously the last of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not covet." Be content with what is our own. Put God first and all you need will be given unto you. Get rid of, not only your desire for all that you don't need, but the actual things (and that is rather a lot). It's a harsh teaching, but it turns out, shock of shocks, Christ was right. "Go, sell all you have and follow me." Though of course if you stop reading right here, all that will make you is poor.

Second, we must do what God intended of us: work. Many of us are out of a job at the moment, and that is a really hard thing, I know first hand. That doesn't mean our hands are to be idle though. Volunteer. Do what is worthy. Hard work makes for a clean mind. It also leads others to have faith in you, which is, as we will remember, one of the things that Cicero says cements a society together. Maurice Switzer penned, what should be blatantly obvious, "the surest way to establish your credit is to work yourself into the position of not needing any."

Perhaps if we stick to what we have, pray for what we need, work hard for God's will and not our own and trust for the rest, then the credit on which we found all our interactions will be worthy of more than just "IOUs."

*In one of my favorite books by Robert Heilein, The Door Into Summer.